Verdigris
by JakunenNeesan
Summary: "Something special..." Leia muttered. "I've never experienced something special before, what if...?" Leia switched her gaze to the surface. It rippled along with the bright reds, yellows, greens and purples. My entry for CONTESTS! YAY!


**My entry for CONTESTS! YAY! This month's theme is _festival_.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon.**

_Verdigris_

"Papa!" A young musical voice exclaimed. "Papa! Come quick!"

"Aye ya! What is it Leia?" An older merman with hair as gray as the backside of a humpback whale, and a body about as thick as one, slowly drifted towards the younger mermaid. "You'll wake up the entire sea with that shriek of yours!"

"Papa," Leia, shrieked again, "Papa, something's going on up above the surface! Bright bursts of light are lighting up the sky! There is also a lot of thunder! I think the sky is on fire! What do we do?"

The merman glanced up towards the surface, and saw the rainbow of colours dance across it.

"Leia, Leia, calm down." The older merman consoled his daughter. "They're only fireworks."

"Fireworks?" Leia scrunched her eyebrows together and titled her head to the side. "What are fireworks?"

The older merman scratched his head softly. He proceeded to grab Leia's wrist and they swam over to a reef to sit down.

"Fireworks are a creation of man. They are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices. Fireworks competitions are also regularly held at a number of places. Fireworks take many forms to produce the four primary effects: noise, light, smoke, and floating materials. They may be designed to burn with colored flames and sparks including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and silver. Displays are common throughout the world and are the focal point of many cultural and religious celebrations."*

"Uhh..." Leia, said, a little slow to take the explanation in.

"In this case," The merman continued. "Mineral Town celebrates the anniversary of it's existence. Every Summer 24th the citizens launch fireworks on the beach, so they can watch them for entertainment while they celebrate."

Slowly Leia got up, swimming back and forth, trying to absorb this brand new information. She ruffled her green hair, she swam on her back, she gazed towards the group of dolphins that were joyfully swimming past one another, tossing and tumbling. It was like they celebrating or something. They were always happy of course, but today seemed different, like something special was supposed to happen.

"Something special..." Leia muttered. "I've never experienced something special before, what if...?" Leia switched her gaze to the surface. It rippled along with the bright reds, yellows, greens and purples.

"Papa," Leia said softly. "Could I go up and watch the fireworks? I don't know if I'll ever get to see them again, since we're migrating soon."

"Well..." Leia's father scratched his beard slowly and carefully. "If you're careful, and take great care not to be seen by anyone-"

"Oh, thank-you Papa!" Leia leaned over to kiss her father's cheek, and swam off feverishly.

"That girl..." He muttered, as he slowly ambled off the reef and towards the horizon of the sea.

...

"Oh, it's so wonderful!" A young woman with pink curly hair gushed as she clung to a young man's arm. "Don't you think so, Kai?"

"Sure..." Kai muttered, as he focused his eyes on the fishing dock. He longed to be there. Just to sit alone and think. It was his own special private time. He didn't get much time to reflect these days.

"Is something wrong?" The young woman asked, removing her hand from his arm and placing it onto his shoulder.

"Yes...no...maybe. Do you mind if I just sit alone on the dock for a while Popuri?" Kai asked, plucking off the woman's hand.

"Of course not..." Popuri murmured sadly, dropping her had like a dead weight. "I'll be sitting beside Karen when you come back."

_Right_. Kai though to himself. He quietly made his way to the edge of the dock, all sounds began to fade away as he became closer to where the fireworks were being set off. He sat down awkwardly, his legs dangling off the edge, his heels lightly brushed the water's surface. He leaned back on his hands as he gazed distantly at the bright colours flooding the sky.

It was then when one of his feet kicked something hard.

"Ouch!" A young musical voice squealed.

"Huh?" Kai raised an eyebrow, and peered over the edge of the dock. The remnants of ripples flowed sporadically. "What in the..." Kai removed his purple bandana to ruffle his hair-a habit he did when he was confused-but a breeze caught it and it flew into the water.

"Great..." He muttered, and he started to reach into the water, when he heard another splash. This one was quieter and more abrupt. Kai paused momentarily as he saw a pale hand lift his wet bandana back on to the edge of the dock.

Instinctively, he grabbed for the hand. It was incredibly tiny, his fingers overlapped one another around it.

"Ow, l-let go please!" The same melodic voice whimpered. Kai slowly dragged the hand closer to him. Gradually, along with it came a pale wrist, then a pale arm, then a pale shoulder, then a pale face. A very fair face in fact.

Her face was small and delicate, like her hand. It was pale and smooth, like the soft inside of a sea shell. Her eyes were a deep lavender, that sparkled and shimmered with the reflection against the fireworks. Her hair was short and stuck out at odd places, and it was _green_.

"Who _are_ you?" Kai asked softly.

"L-Leia," Leia replied softly. "Please, please don't hurt me..."

"Why on Earth would I do that? Why are you in the water?"

"Well..." Leia looked down at her hand. Kai realized, he was still holding on and let her wrist go.

"Well, what?" Kai inquired. "Aren't you cold?"

"No."

Leia sighed. Her father was going to be furious with her. She never meant to get this close to shore, she was just so enraptured by the brightness of the fireworks that were still going on. Coloured shadows danced across her face. The young mermaid hugged herself. Her father wasn't ever going to trust her again. Contacting a human being was forbidden.

"Leia?"

"I can't say," Leia replied, "but I'd like to stay in the water while watching the fireworks if you don't mind."

"Alright...?" Kai leaned back on his hands.

The two watched the fireworks silently for a while. Bursts of red, green, yellow, purple, pink, orange, and many others littered the sky.

"Beautiful, what colour is that?" Leia quietly asked herself.

"Verdigris."

"What?" Leia inclined her head towards Kai.

"The colour of that firework. It' verdigris. A shade of blue." Kai explained.

"Oh, I see. It's very pretty."

_So are you._ Kai thought to himself.

The verdigris firework concluded the show. Everything slowly became darker. The twinkling of the stars and moon provided the only light.

"Well, I guess I should get going." Leia said sadly. She knew this was her last chance with coming to the surface, once her father found out-well she didn't want to think about that. Plus she was migrating soon. She would be too busy to come up top any way.

"Do you really have to go, Leia?" Kai asked. "I mean, I've just met you, why are you taking off?"

"I can't say."

"You've already said that! Why can't you say?"

"I just can't! Okay?"

"So your just going to say good-bye, just like that?"

Leia looked down for a moment, then looked up at Kai just a quickly, with a mix of worry and concentration on her face. She placed her hands at the edge of the dock, outside of Kai's dangling legs, so he was sort of trapped. Leia hoisted herself up onto his lap, her green bangs brushing into her eyes. Once she was secure, she took one of her hands and cupped Kai's chin. Her other hand held the back of Kai's head, her fingers intertwining with his chestnut coloured hair. Slowly she pressed her lips to his, softly molding her mouth to fit his his. It was only for a moment or two before she stopped, and she slid back into the water, somehow managing to avoid her tail being shown, it flicked silently and sporadically.

"Kai!" Popuri's voice rang out. "Are you coming?"

Kai turned his head and saw Popuri walking towards the dock, her ruby red skirt hiked up above her ankles.

"I..." Kai began and turned back to ask Leia if she would like to come with him. That kiss was something else. It's set off his own internal fireworks, something that's never happened before, and he's been kissed by plenty of girls. Leia was different. She was special.

But Leia was gone.

**It seemed obvious that the explanation of fireworks seemed like it came out of a text book, doesn't it? Credit goes to _Wikipedia _for that paragraph. Also a huge thanks to the _Wicked _soundtrack for the _For Good_ song. It helped me stay motivated to write this piece.**

**I hope you've enjoyed the story. :)**

**- JakunenNeesan**


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